The Bloodline Chronicles
by hunterofartemis080
Summary: Raised by a Flint and the daughter of Death Eaters, Leah Snape was expected to be a multitude of things. But magic and blood had its own plans for Severus's daughter. OC/OC & Blaise/OC. Years 1 through 7. Currently: year 1
1. Part 1: Because Family is Family

**Because Family is Family**

"Now, Cela, mummy has to go away for a few months." Eve Spencer crouched in front of her four-year-old daughter, their matching eyes locked. The young girl had always adored the fact their eyes matched. Eve's hands were on her daughter's shoulders and she didn't want to let go. She never wanted to let go. She never wanted to leave her daughter again. She wanted to whisk the beautiful girl away to the life they were meant to have together. The life they would have had if fate had been any kinder.

But she couldn't.

She'd never be able to.

Tears brimmed in Leah's eyes. The girl had never cried often, even as a young baby. Eve could count the times she'd seen it happen on one hand. "When will you be back?"

"I don't know, Cela." Eve moved to cup the girl's cheek, one of her daughter's own hands coming up to rest on top of it. It had always worried Eve how cold her daughter's hands were. "I'll be back as soon as possible, I promise."

"Okay," Leah said, nodding. "I'll wait."

"I know you will, Cela. I know you will." Eve kissed her daughter's head for the last time. "I have a present for you." She undid the golden locket she'd always worn, another thing her daughter had always loved to play with. "This is yours now." Leah's eyes widened as she took it. Eve could tell the girl wanted to give it back, not liking the way she looked without it, but Eve closed the girl's hands over it. "I've got to leave now, Cela." Eve could feel the girl's father watching them.

It was that man's fault that Eve had to leave her daughter, that she was being forced away now. He'd refused to give her a reason for it, just told her to say her goodbyes and leave as quickly as she could. She had the sense that she'd never be allowed back.

He was the one with the final decisions in Leah's life, after all. The one the Ministry would grant custody if they presented the case, the one Dumbledore had made her ask to see her daughter at all.

Eve hugged her daughter as tightly as she could, trying to make the moment last forever, before she stood and left, wrapping her coat tightly around herself against the cold winter air. She could have cast a spell to warm herself, but Eve couldn't remember the last time she'd used magic.

It just wasn't worth it anymore. It hadn't been worth it in years.

=CVS=

As his family name requested, Donald Sigmund Flint flocked to power.

Potestatem persistit. Power persists.

It was said that when a Flint joined your side, you were destined to win. That a Flint could detect power in the air.

But the Dark Lord had lost with Flints on his side. Donald's own parents had been among his ranks, as had his aunt.

And perhaps the Dark Lord had won, in a way, even if he was gone. He'd torn the Wizarding world apart, made Slytherins the enemies of it all.

Donald Flint knew that being a Slytherin did not mean you were evil. He knew the power of wearing green and silver. He was proud of being a snake, despite the looks it got him in the Ministry.

When someone knocked on his door close to Christmas, Donald did not sense power in the air. Instead, he found his cousin, Evelyn Blythe Spencer.

Eve, bearing the blonde hair of the Flint family but not the temperament or name. Eve, who'd been a Hufflepuff in Hogwarts because she was too loyal instead of ambitious. Eve, who'd joined the Death Eaters and earned herself a position among those whispered about.

She was a witch who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. It didn't matter that, technically, the Ministry had cleared her of all charges. She'd been connected once and that was enough.

Enough to have Donald nearly slam the door on her face and never look back.

"I have a daughter!"

The words reached him just before the door closed fully. Donald did not reopen it, but he did not continue to close it. Slytherins cared about family, after all. Flints cared about family. He cared about first cousins once removed.

"She's four, and she's beautiful, and her father has kept her from me." Eve pushed the door open more. "Please, Donald. I need your help."

"Who is her father?" Eve looked as though she didn't want to say it. "Tell me, Eve."

"Severus Snape."

Another Death Eater, but that man had been cleared by Albus Dumbledore himself. That man bore the scars but had gotten out of it cleaner than Eve.

"What do you expect me to do about it?"

"Get her back." Eve grabbed his robes, a Slytherin green. "Please, Donald. She can't stay with him."

Eve looked so much like a madwoman that Donald almost wondered if she'd made her daughter up completely. "What's her name?"

That seemed to make Eve more hopeful.

"Celaeno Victoria."

Donald knew that Celaeno was his great grandmother – Celaeno Flint nee Greengrass - and Victoria was Eve's mother - Victoria Spencer nee Flint. A girl named in the manner befitting pure-bloods.

He stepped back, but it wasn't to close the door. It was to let Eve inside.

=CVS=

It was only after careful consultation with Donald's younger sister, Raine, that he finally agreed to help his cousin. That he finally agreed to face down Dumbledore and the Ministry to get Leah out of her father's house.

The Ministry, really, hadn't known what to do with Leah. It wasn't normal that they stepped into the affairs of parents and a child, but Donald and Raine Flint – she was a Rivers, technically, but Raine would always be a Flint – had walked into the Minister's office and demanded that Leah be taken from her father's home. But Donald had handed Millicent Bagnold the paperwork that meant Eve had appointed Donald as Leah's guardian.

Then, the Ministry was forced to make a decision. If it were simply between the parents, it would have been easy. After all, Leah's father had Albus Dumbledore's protection and her mother had no one. Her father was the best of two bad options and the Ministry would have moved on. Shoved it to the back of their minds and continued on their merry way healing after You-Know-Who's rise.

But Donald didn't let that happen. Because after all, weren't no Death Eaters better than a reformed one? Wasn't a respected Ministry employee better than a young new professor? Wasn't a Flint better than some no-name?

Albus Dumbledore hadn't been happy with it. He went to speak with Donald and Raine to attempt and convince them that Eve was dangerous, that Leah's father's home was really, honestly, the best place for her. But they heard none of it.

For not only were they Flints and Slytherins, but Raine had a son Leah's age and she'd be damned if she let the girl be anywhere but what was the absolute safest for her. And there was no way that Dumbledore could argue that the home of Donald Flint, well-respected member of the Wizarding world and promising lawyer, wasn't the best place.

The Ministry agreed.

And so Donald did everything but adopt the girl. He'd been nearing on that too, but Dumbledore visited again and told Donald what he already knew; he had no hope of winning adoption, no matter how much of a Death Eater Leah's parents were. That there was a solution that would satisfy all parties involved.

All parties, that is, except Eve.

Donald gained parental responsibilities. Her father retained visiting rights. And her mother?

Her mother wasn't allowed anywhere near her.

The Ministry was fine with that.

And so Donald went to Severus Snape's home, handed him the paperwork, and went to collect Leah.

The girl was in her room when Donald found her, looking terrified. He was shocked at how little she looked like her mother. She had her father's hooked nose, dark hair, and rounded shoulders. But when she looked up at him, motionless, he saw that she had Eve's eyes. They weren't particularly Flint, but Donald honestly would have been surprised to find any of that in her. Perhaps it would come as she grew.

He crouched down to be at her height and remembered Raine's son, a boy of the same age. How eager the boy already looked, how quick to smile. And how little of that there was in Leah. "Hello, Leah." He spoke as he had years before when facing little first years as a Slytherin Prefect. He'd always wondered why he'd been chosen for the task, as compassion was never something he'd been particularly skilled at expressing. "My name is Donald. I'm a cousin of your mother. And I'm going to take care of you now."

"Can I see mummy?"

He forced his expression into a smile. "I'm sorry, Leah, but not yet." After all, the Ministry may have taken away her father's custody, but that didn't mean they'd reinstated her mother's. "Would you like to take my hand?"

Leah looked down at it and Donald wondered how much compassion she'd been shown as a child from anyone but her mother. "Where are we going?"

"I'm going to take you to my house. Is there anything you want to take with you?" She shook her head, not even needing to look around the room to check. "Alright then." She took his hand, finally. Her hand felt cold. "Let's go."

=CVS=

The early morning house was quiet around the now eleven-year-old Leah. She knew Donald was in his office finishing up his reports, but she didn't really mind the silence regardless. She was used to the house being silent; Donald always preferred silence.

Leah had never been naturally quiet – a trait Donald couldn't say if she'd inherited from her mother or not, but one she liked to think she had – but after seven years she'd taught herself how to pretend. One thing she knew she'd inherited from Donald – and wondered if it was from her father too – was working best in the early morning.

It did help that she tended to get woken then by nightmares since Donald had taught her to make the best of a bad situation and use the time to get things done. If she still wanted, he would comfort her, tell her that nightmares weren't real unless you let them be, but he'd also shown her that focusing on work could be better for you. That distracting yourself could scare the nightmares away.

That was why she'd woken up that morning. A nightmare that, by now, she didn't remember. There was something green, but that was all that remained now.

The knock at the door announced the arrival of the house-elf Donald's parents had made him acquire upon taking in Leah. Vorky was always a welcome addition to Leah's room in these early mornings, particularly because he tended to carry lemon sweets with him. "Hello, mistress," Vorky said, smiling at her. "Your letter has arrived."

Immediately, Leah leapt off her bed, where she'd been sitting reading, to take the letter from Vorky.

She'd known exactly when it would come. She'd made a calendar to mark the days until it would. She'd dreaded that it wouldn't.

But it had. She'd always known it would. She was a witch. She had magic. She would go to Hogwarts.

"Thank you, Vorky."

"You're welcome, mistress. Breakfast will be prepared shortly." With another smile, Vorky left her room, leaving the door slightly ajar. Vorky tended to do that, to the annoyance of Donald.

It was one of the few times that Leah had seen Donald get angry and that was mainly just because he kept getting lost in his own house. After all, Flint homes were enchanted to create the rooms required of its inhabitants, growing and shrinking as situations required, moving about personal belongings as the house deemed fit. But a room could only vanish if the door was completely closed and if Vorky left all the doors open, the house would just keep growing.

Leah had been lost an entire day once, wandering rooms to attempt to find one she recognized, but the magic was so finicky that rooms that should have been connected tended not to be.

Mostly, you just had to hope that the house would get you to where you wanted to go.

She touched her locket as she looked at the letter. Her mother had gone to Hogwarts, Donald had told her. Had told her of a mother who'd worn yellow robes despite her Flint blood.

And while Donald hadn't known much about Leah's father, she knew that the man had gone to Hogwarts too. She knew that the man taught there as the Potions Master. She knew that going to Hogwarts would mean seeing him for the first time in seven years.

Technically, her father wasn't prevented from seeing her. Donald had explained it all to her on her seventh birthday, when her magic had made itself prominent enough that there was no question of where she'd go once she turned eleven. Donald was her guardian, an unofficial godfather if you wished, but her father was still her father.

Her father could have come and visited her whenever he wanted over these seven years - unlike her mother - but her father hadn't. Leah had always been curious about why he hadn't. About why he'd ignored her.

After fighting so hard to keep her with him, it didn't seem right that her father wouldn't want to see her.

But maybe he'd just been waiting. He'd see her once she came to Hogwarts, after all, once she was sorted.

Once she was sorted into Slytherin.

Because it wasn't even a question, at least in Leah's mind. She knew her mother had been a Hufflepuff, but her father had been a Slytherin.

Donald had been a Slytherin. Raine had been one, as had Arthur and Sarah, Donald's other siblings. Even Circe, Donald's cousin on his other side, had been in Slytherin. The Flint family was teeming with Slytherins.

Leah had been surrounded by Slytherins since birth. Slytherin was in her blood.

She traced a finger over the green ink before she opened the letter. It was simple, normal, the same thing sent to every other first year she'd be starting Hogwarts with. The same letter that her mother and father and Donald and Raine and everyone else around her had received.

She was going to Hogwarts.

Once she was certain that the letter was actually real and not a dream, Leah tucked it into her skirt and went looking for breakfast. She wasn't that surprised not to see Donald there, as the man did tend to get lost in his work, but Vorky had prepared her oatmeal exactly how she liked it, so it was enjoyable.

She would have to write Ollie when she had the chance. The boy, Raine's son and called cousin because it was easier - just as she sometimes called Donald uncle - was her same age. He would have received a letter that morning too.

However, she hadn't even finished her breakfast before Vorky appeared with another letter for her, Ollie beating her to it. His family had been off visiting Sarah in Russia for the summer and would only just be back by September first, so there was no hope of them meeting in Diagon Alley.

Leah decided that she'd write her mother instead, even if the woman had never replied. Of course, Leah had never actually sent them.

She knew her mother wouldn't have been able to reply even if she'd gotten the letters.

=CVS=

Though the letter arrived halfway through July, Donald didn't get a chance to get off from work until the first day of August. If it had taken any longer he'd been planning on contacting Arthur or Alesia, Arthur's wife, and have them take her instead, but thankfully it hadn't come to that.

Leah waited in the front hall for Donald on the day they'd agreed on, watching the adult Muggles outside the window. Flint houses, thanks to their magical properties, were able to exist quite happily alongside Muggle ones. Leah didn't spend much time outside of the house based on the basic fact that Donald's house wasn't surrounded by many children. It was a street of bachelors and bachelorettes that entertained a steady stream of changing occupants due to the fact that none of the homes were particularly suited to housing families.

There'd been one girl that Leah had started to become friends with almost right after she'd first started living with Donald, but that girl had left shortly after.

So Leah had gotten used to simply watching the world from the house, making friends with her various few cousins instead of Muggle children. Besides, Muggle children were that: Muggles. Why would Leah want to be friends with them when she had a world of wizarding children to be friends with once she got to Hogwarts?

"You look excited," Donald said, making Leah turn. They were both wearing robes that day, matching emerald green that Donald had sworn was close to Slytherin. "Ready, dove?" He called her that sometimes, when feeling particularly kind, which wasn't often, but she didn't mind. She nodded and he gestured for her to follow him to the front room, one of the few rooms in the entire house to never shift around.

Inside was only a fireplace and it was how, mostly, Leah went anywhere and everywhere. She was well-practiced at stepping into those emerald flames to meet with relatives, though Donald did do it as little as possible due to his own general dislike of a majority of his family members.

He let her go through first, flooing to a fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron specifically meant for this purpose. And then they together, though he did pause to say hello to a witch he recognized from the Ministry, went into Diagon Alley, Donald tapping the specific brick with his wand.

Leah had been to Diagon Alley before, accompanying Donald soon after he'd taken her in and before Vorky had been forced upon him. She'd been four, nearly five, and didn't remember many of the details.

But what she had remembered – and what she'd tried to capture in drawings – were the colors. Each witch or wizard swarming the street brought with them a variety of colors, mixtures of Muggle and magical clothing, and pairing that with the shops created an onslaught for her senses.

And it was wonderful. Leah never wanted to leave.

Donald took her hand to ensure she didn't wander away, a gesture he only really did in public like this, and led her down the street to Gringotts. As someone half in the Wizarding world and half among Muggles, the money he carried tended to sway one way or another. It seemed that that day, he had more Muggle than Wizard and thus had to get the goblins of Gringotts to convert it for him.

He kept her beside him as he went to the goblin in question, forced to wait in a line of Muggle-borns and their parents exchanging money for the first time. There were a few witches or wizards scattered among them, seeming to be official Ministry employees attempting to make the experience as easy as possible. One of the Muggle-born, a girl who looked around Leah's age, waved at her enthusiastically as she passed, parents led by a harried looking wizard.

She turned to watch the girl leave, only for her attention – and that of quite a few people in line with her – to be caught by a man larger than any Leah had seen before hurrying through the bank. A boy, around her age again, trailed behind him, looking rather amazed about the entire affair. Leah would have thought he was a Muggle-born too if it weren't for the fact he was going to the goblins in charge of the general Gringotts vaults.

"Time to go," Donald said, taking Leah's hand again to bring her out of the bank.

As every member of her family had gone to Hogwarts before, there was a general pool of books and equipment available for all Flint children to use when it came their time, though the majority of them did tend to buy their own anyway, as they generally had the money to do so. Donald had decided that she'd get fresh potions equipment and new editions of a few of the books, but they had enough of everything else.

One thing Leah would get herself, for certain, was a wand. Donald saved that for last, Leah joining him as he purchased various things both he needed and Vorky had requested. He did promise that, if she did good in her first year, he'd get her an owl for her second and let her look around the Owl Emporium to get an idea of what type she'd want the next year.

But then it was time.

Then they were entering Ollivander's, a bell going off to announce their arrival. It looked empty at first, just lined as far as Leah could see with wand boxes, but then Ollivander himself appeared. "Ah, hello, Miss Snape." He smiled at Leah. "I thought I'd be seeing you soon." He looked up to Donald. "Mr. Flint, yes. Fir with a unicorn's hair core, thirteen inches, stiff?"

Donald nodded. "Still serves me well."

"Yes, a good wand, a good wand." Back to Leah. "Now, let's see." He waved a hand and a tape measure started measuring various points of Leah. She glanced at Donald, but he nodded, so she stayed motionless, even as Ollivander vanished back into the piles of wands. He returned with a caramel colored wand in hand. "Walnut and unicorn's hair. Nine inches. Stiff. Try it."

Leah took it and instantly knew that the natural coldness of her fingers deepened. When she flicked the wand, nothing happened.

"Ah, no, I thought not." Ollivander took the wand back, searching for another. The one he returned with was paler, the grip stained darker. "Willow and dragon's heartstring. Ten inches. Slightly whippy."

That time, when she touched it, Leah was overcome with a mixture of giddiness and a pull in her gut. A flick summoned wisps of light that she swore smelled like Vorky's lemon candies.

"Yes, yes, far more sense," Ollivander nodded, placing the wand in the box for her. "Eight galleons." Donald gave him the necessary coins. "Enjoy your time at Hogwarts, Miss Snape."

"Thank you," she said, smiling, and they left the store together, Leah holding tightly to her wand.

She'd never really touched a wand before. She'd played with Donald's when she was little and he wasn't yet used to not leaving a wand lying about when there was a young child in the house. Gave Vorky quite a fright when he'd come in to find her stuck to the ceiling.

Donald had been careful to keep his wand away from her since then.

But now she had her own. Now she was going to go to Hogwarts and learn how to use it and channel all that bubbling inside her that she swore was magic. That she knew was magic.

She was going to Hogwarts.

 **A/N: Hello and welcome! In honor of it being September 1, 2017, I decided to post the first chapter of The Bloodline Chronicles. This story will follow Celaeno Victoria Snape, nicknamed Leah by most people, Cela by her mother, and dove by Donald (after the Pleiades Celaeno of Greek mythology).**

 **Sit back and enjoy this journey through the life of a strange little girl who is determined to be a Slytherin.**

 **Thank you.**


	2. Part 1: Names Have Power

**Names Have Power**

August passed extremely quickly. Disasters at the Ministry kept Donald there often, but Leah occupied her time with packing and sketching Diagon Alley. She'd always been interested in drawing and Donald, upon discovering it, had provided her with ample parchment to satisfy her.

She even did a sketch of Donald, as best as she could approximate him. It'd be nice to have any form of him with her at Hogwarts.

Sometimes she would even look at the parchment she'd set aside for drawing her mother, not yet daring to do so. Her only memories of the woman were seven years old now, no doubt nothing like what she actually was. Leah didn't want to ruin it by drawing anything that wasn't accurate. But she'd already picked the piece of parchment she would use when the time came. When she was finally ready.

The back of her first star map.

When she'd been particularly little, her mother would sit at the window with her, pointing out constellations. She'd helped Leah draw the star map, telling her the meanings behind constellations.

The next time Leah saw her mother, she would draw the woman. She kept the parchment on her at all times, tucked deep into a pocket, just in case the woman appeared one day. Just so she was ready.

Leah didn't have a parchment ready for a drawing of her father because she'd always known she would see him again. She always knew he'd be at Hogwarts when she arrived. Besides, she didn't have many memories of him to base a drawing off of. She had the impression he hadn't been particularly affectionate when she'd been a child.

It was hard to fall asleep the last day of August, knowing that the next day she'd be on a train to Hogwarts, but somehow Leah managed. She was woken by Vorky close to ten, the house-elf finally deciding that she'd slept late enough and really needed to eat something before getting on the train because 'Vorky wouldn't have mistress filling up on treats before the feast'.

Donald had promised that he'd be there to take her to Hogwarts, but an owl arrived as Leah ate, relayed to her by Vorky. A misunderstanding had led to Donald being scheduled into a meeting right at eleven, which meant he wouldn't be able to take her to the platform. He apologized profusely, swearing he'd make it up to her at Christmas, but told her that Vorky would ensure she got to the platform on time.

Though Leah knew she had family, only one of her 'cousins' was actually starting Hogwarts this year with her, Ollie. She'd been hoping for Donald's assistance in attempting to find him on the Hogwarts Express.

But it would be fine. Leah knew it would be fine. She was going to Hogwarts, of course it was going to be fine.

Vorky levitated Leah's trunk for her to help her bring it to the fireplace. The house-elf was going to go to the platform with her, ensuring she didn't accidently floo to the wrong place. So, once Vorky had ensured Leah was prepared and hadn't forgotten anything, they flooed to the platform together.

Just like Diagon Alley, the platform had a series of fireplaces for the very use of people who didn't want to walk among the Muggles or simply had no other way to get to King's Cross, for whatever reason. The other people emerging from the other fireplaces were a combination of large families and lone students, though Leah didn't see any others that were her age.

Vorky didn't stay long, simply saying goodbye to Leah before snapping himself back to the house.

The people who noticed Leah as she dragged her trunk to the train smiled. It was a bit difficult to actually get her trunk up, but thankfully a boy, close to her age, appeared from inside the train. "Need some help?" he asked, grinning.

Leah smiled too. "Yes, thank you." Together, they lifted the trunk easily.

"See you at Hogwarts!" he waved as he left, vanishing back into his nearby compartment, which Leah could already see was filled with various other students, the majority of whom seemed older than the boy.

She found herself the first totally empty compartment, leaving her trunk on the ground and settling for looking out the window, trying to spot Ollie in the crowd. She'd go looking for him on the train once it started, but she didn't want to risk missing him now if he hadn't arrived yet.

The platform kept up a steady flow of young witches and wizards heading to Hogwarts as they neared eleven, everyone piling inside the train and then staying to hang out of their windows to wave final goodbyes to parents and siblings.

Leah had no one to wave goodbye to.

"Oh, hello!" someone said, making Leah turn. It was an older girl sporting a Ravenclaw headband and a strong French accent. "Mind if we share your compartment?" She nodded behind her, revealing two boys, both shorter than her. Leah nodded. "Wonderful! My name's Gwen," the girl hurried in, taking a seat opposite Leah. "This is Rick," the boy sat next to her, "and that's Artie." Artie sat on Leah's side. "I'm sixth, Rick's seventh, and Artie's third. I take it you're a first year?" Leah nodded again.

"Oh, I loved my first year," Rick said, nodding. "It was brilliant. Excited for Hogwarts?"

"Very."

"Best place on Earth, Hogwarts is."

"What's your name?" Artie asked her.

"Leah." She wondered if they could see her father in her features. She didn't remember the man enough to do it herself. Was it obvious? Did they guess? Would everyone know the moment she went to Hogwarts?

"Anything in particular you're looking forward to?"

Leah had never thought about it specifically before. She'd always just generally looked forward to the idea of Hogwarts. Not even learning anything specific, though Donald's promise of an owl for a successful first year ensured Leah was going to work hard, even if it turned out she didn't want to. "Everything."

Rick laughed. "Good answer." He pulled a bag from his pocket. "Licorice wand?"

"Don't give her candy covered in pocket lint," Artie said, making a face. "No one wants pocket lint candy."

Rick ate one of the wands. "Pocket lint is delicious. Besides, they were in a bag the entire time. There's no lint."

Gwen plucked something from one of the wands. "You were saying, Rick?"

"I'm being framed!"

There was a whistle as the train started. Leah was tempted to go hunting for Ollie, but she knew she'd see him once she got to Hogwarts. Besides, these three were some of the first new people she'd ever really met. She didn't want to leave them just yet, even as she knew that she was heading to a school filled with new people.

Her and Ollie weren't the only ones of their extended family at Hogwarts, she had another cousin named Marcus who'd be starting sixth year, but Donald had never liked Marcus's parents for some reason, so they'd never met. Leah supposed they would now, especially if she was in Slytherin.

Not if. When. Leah was going to be a Slytherin, she knew it.

=CVS=

The train ride passed quickly. It turned out that Gwen, Rick, and Artie were very enjoyable together, making up for all the lost time over the summer. She learned that Artie was a Hufflepuff – Rick asked if it was true if their common room had a wall dedicated to Helga Hufflepuff chocolate frog cards – while Gwen and Rick were Ravenclaws. Gwen was even the current Ravenclaw Seeker, a fact Rick enjoyed repeating multiple times to Leah.

At one point, a girl with rather large front teeth had come asking if they'd seen a toad, but that was really the only strange thing that had happened.

Either quicker than she expected or not quick enough, they'd arrived at Hogwarts. The trio promised to cheer for Leah when she was sorted, no matter where she went, and pointed her in the direction of the large man she'd seen in Gringotts, who'd be bringing them to Hogwarts.

After ensuring they were all gathered, the man brought them down the extremely steep path that came off from the platform. Their only light was the man's lamp, which meant quite a few of them stumbled and stubbed various things on the trees and roots.

"Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," the man called, "jus' round this bend here."

Leah felt her breath catch in her throat at that news. Hogwarts.

The path opened onto a large lake and, reflected in it and surrounded by stars, was the castle. It was nothing like Donald had tried to describe; it was so much better.

"No more'n four to a boat!" the man shouted, gesturing them to the boats along the water. They all broke into groups of four as best they could, with Leah ending up with two boys named Ernie and Seamus and a girl named Mandy. "Everybody in? Right then – FORWARD!"

The boats moved as one across the water. They all ignored each other, just watching the castle. Leah touched her locket as she did so.

She'd write her mother about this. Describe it as best she could, maybe even add a sketch. Attempt to capture it.

She wondered if her mother remembered this moment. If her father did. What Hogwarts had meant to them.

The man told them to keep their heads down as they reached the cliff, the boats finally stopping in an underground harbor. One of the boys found his toad – no doubt the one who'd lost one earlier – and they all climbed up to the massive oak doors that led to Hogwarts. "Everyone here?" he asked. "You there, still got yer toad?" the boy held up his toad as evidence. The man knocked three times, and it opened to reveal a tall witch in emerald green who honestly reminded Leah quite a bit of Donald. "The firs' years, Professor McGonagall."

"Thank you, Hagrid." McGonagall nodded to him. "I will take them from here." She opened the door wider, bringing them through the entrance room to a small chamber to the side, where they were told they would wait before entering the Great Hall.

Shortly after she left, a series of ghosts burst through the wall, arguing about someone named Peeves, but all the ghosts left as McGonagall returned. "Move along now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Now, form a line." The students hurried to do as she said. "And follow me."

She brought them to the Great Hall. There were four long tables inside – one for each house – and a fifth at the top of the hall. It was there that Leah searched for her father's face, looking for someone familiar.

She found him watching her, dark eyes so different from her own that it was shocking. Their hair was the same, completely black, and Leah couldn't quite tell but she swore they had the same nose.

But it was her father. A man she hadn't seen since she was four, a man who the Ministry had decided wasn't able to be her father.

A man whose name she still shared because Donald had been her guardian, not her father, and she'd been placed with her father first. She knew that her parents had never been married, but it was her father's name she'd known her whole life, not her mother's, Spencer, which she'd never really liked, though she'd always connected more strongly with Flint.

She'd always planned on changing her name once she was old enough. She'd told Donald that she wanted to be a Flint when she was seven, but he made her promise to wait until she was of age.

Leah still wanted to be a Flint. She'd always felt more like a Flint than a Snape.

The sorting hat, placed by McGonagall on top of a stool in the front of the hall, finished its song to a round of applause. "When I call your name," the woman herself said, parchment in hand, "you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted." She looked at the parchment. "Abbott, Hannah."

Leah didn't pay attention to the majority of the sorting, but she did note a few. Where the girl she recognized from Gringotts went – Fay Dunbar, Gryffindor. The boy who'd helped her get her trunk onto the train – Elton Hartell, Hufflepuff. And she most certainly noticed when Harry Potter himself was called.

It was the boy from Gringotts, who she'd seen trailing behind Hagrid. No wonder he'd been going to the vaults; raised by Muggles, he was still a wizard. He took a few seconds to be sorted, the hall a mixture of whispers and silence as all four houses waited to see if the Boy-Who-Lived would be in their house.

"Gryffindor!"

That table cheered particularly enthusiastically at that announcement.

Next was Ollie, who grinned when he spotted Leah in the crowd. Almost immediately, he went to Hufflepuff, which Leah knew would either greatly amuse or greatly annoy his parents, Raine Slytherin and Anthony Gryffindor.

And then it was Leah.

"Snape, Celaeno."

The entire hall stilled at that announcement. Leah watched her father sit up slightly as she approached the hat, all of the professors fixing her with sudden attention. After all, she was the daughter of their colleague. She wondered how many of them knew she'd ever existed, how much of the wizarding world did.

From what she'd understood, the situation surrounding who would raise her had been a topic of controversy in the wizarding world, as it had been one of the few times the Ministry had been called in to deal with such a situation.

The hat covered her vision as McGonagall placed it.

"Why hello there," the voice said, speaking just in her ears and making them itch slightly. "What a mind we have here. So much loyalty, but that talent? Determined, dedicated. You have great plans for your future, great plans indeed. Greatness indeed. I know just what'd be best...Slytherin!" it announced the final word to the hall.

The Slytherin table cheered for her – Leah listened for Gwen, Rick, and Artie and heard them too – as she approached. She, meanwhile, was impossibly happy. This was what she wanted. This was the house of Flints. Of the family she'd been given, the family she'd been chosen.

Leah had been surrounded by Slytherins since birth. She knew the that not all Slytherins became Death Eaters – after all, hadn't she been raised by a man who'd been chosen for the task specifically because he'd never had any ties to the Death Eaters?

She knew Donald would be pleased. Leah planned to write him as soon as possible.

The sorting finished shortly after Leah sat down – she joined the small group of other Slytherin first years, who'd all ended up crowding together as they took their seats – and, after a few words from Albus Dumbledore himself, the feast began.

Leah spent a moment longer watching the headmaster after he sat down before she turned to her housemates. That was the man who'd fought to keep Leah with her father. Who Donald and Raine had stood against. Why had he cared so about where she went? Why had the fact Leah would get a family seemed like something so terrible to him?

She almost wanted to ask him herself.

"Are you actually Snape's daughter?" one of the other first years asked her, making Leah turn.

The girl next to her, who looked similar enough that she must have been her older sister, swat her arm. "Pansy, you can't just ask that." She turned more to face Leah, Prefect badge shining on her robes. "So sorry about my little sister. I'm Viola Parkinson, one of your Prefects."

"But are you?" Pansy asked again, turning in her seat to look at Leah's father. Leah herself was suppressing that urge. "I mean, you look similar enough."

"Yes, he's my father." All nearby students turned to her with wide eyes. "I was raised by my mother's cousin."

"Yeah, Donald Flint, right?" a boy with particularly large front teeth sitting on Viola's other side. "Marcus Flint." He reached across the table to shake her hand. "Another cousin." Leah had never asked Donald exactly what he didn't like about Marcus's parents. She supposed she should have before starting Hogwarts. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with the boy himself.

"Pleasure to meet you."

Leah engaged in idle chat with Viola and Marcus, the boy teasing her about a boyfriend who'd just left Hogwarts – Viola and Pansy were his cousins on his mother's side. It was, overall, quite enjoyable. She caught Ollie's gaze at one point across the Ravenclaw table, the boy giving her an enthusiastic wave despite how much it seemed to annoy a boy next to him. After all, though Slytherin had a dark reputation that kept other houses from liking it, Ollie had a Slytherin for a mother.

Once they'd all eaten their fill, the food vanished and Dumbledore stood again. "Ahem – just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.

"First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well." He cast a glance towards a pair of red-heads at the Gryffindor table – "Weasleys", she heard someone down the table sneer. "I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch."

"You hear that, Pucey?" Marcus called, leaning forward to look down the table. "Second week of term! Write it down!"

"...on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death," Dumbledore continued. A few students around the hall laughed at that, but the majority of the Slytherins were quiet. "And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" When Leah looked to the professors, she found all of their smiles suddenly fixed, though her father wasn't attempting to fake anything. Dumbledore conjured a golden ribbon to form the words of the song. "Everyone pick their favorite tune, and off we go!"

Almost on mass, the Slytherin table picked up the same tune, something Leah matched without thinking about it. Dumbledore applauded quite loudly once they'd all finished. "Ah, music. A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

Viola gathered all of the Slytherin first years to ensure none of them were lost on the way to the dungeons, though Leah would have been surprised if they had given the fact that the entire table was going the same way. Viola did wait until the majority of the other Slytherins had left, taking the chance to talk with another of the Prefects, before bringing them down to the dungeons.

When they finally stopped, it was before a plain stone wall. "This is the entrance to our common room. Password changes every fortnight, but it is always posted on the noticeboard for you, should you be particularly forgetful." She faced the wall, squaring her shoulders. "Always say the password clearly. Anguem." The stones of the wall melted away seamlessly.

The common room beyond was long and slightly curved, with stone walls and ceiling, and large windows on one side that looked out onto the lake. It was lit by green lanterns, enhancing the already green light from the lake. There were small fireplaces evenly spaced around the room, each surrounded by chairs and low-backed sofas, upon which a variety of older Slytherins were already lounging. The one at the end of the room, however, had an elaborate mantelpiece and seemed to be reserved for seventh years only.

Viola brought the first years to the noticeboard to ensure they knew where it was before bringing them to the far end of the room, where there was a large doorway beside the fireplace. "Boy and girl dorms are, as I'm sure many of you know, spaced every-other down this hall. Both genders have separate bathrooms through this door." She leaned into the long corridor of dormitories, pointing at the door in question. "And back there," she pointed back into the main common room, "is the series of separate study rooms that you can use whenever you want some quiet; some of the rooms are enchanted against sound and I'd recommend not trying to break the charm. Any questions?" She looked around at them all, nodded to another girl slipping past her to go to her own dorm, and smiled. "Welcome to Slytherin, all of you. Tomorrow night you'll each be assigned an older Slytherin to ensure you find your place here; I'm happy to take any personal requests into account. But now, I'd recommend going to your dormitories and resting up; schedules will be handed out tomorrow."

Viola stepped to the side to let them pass her. The boys and girls were next to each other, marked by elegant silver script as 'First Year Girls' and 'First Year Boys' respectably. The dormitories beyond were as long as Leah would have guessed from the outside. The hallway itself had been long and only lit by the lamps, as all of the windows looking out into the lake were in the dorms. All of the beds were against the wall opposite the windows, themed green, black, and silver.

There was a trunk at the base of each bed and each girl – there were five of them – quickly found their own bed, taking seats. The majority seemed to know each other already and Leah had the sense it was only for her sake that they introduced themselves at all.

There was Millicent Bulstrode, who preferred to be called Millie and had a pet cat named Paracelsus – nicknamed Perry by her little brother – and had the bed on one side of Leah. Tracey Davis was on Leah's other side, next to the wall. Daphne Greengrass was beside her and Pansy Parkinson was closest to the door.

They all seemed particularly interested in the fact that Leah was their Potion Master's daughter, especially as they knew the general story around the issue with her guardianship. After all, it had been a situation mainly consisting of Slytherins.

"And you were really never told exactly why you couldn't stay with your father?" Millicent asked her, Perry leaping off her lap to go investigate the view of the lake out the window.

Leah shook her head. "Donald never said."

"Must have been something, if the Ministry had to get involved," Daphne said, sounding as though she knew precisely what she was talking about. "I wonder when our first lesson with him is; you haven't seen him since you were four, correct?" Leah nodded.

The conversation was derailed quickly after that, as Perry launched himself at something in the lake and made Pansy scream with the sudden sound. Soon, all the girls, after discovering a way to draw curtains along the lake to prevent any more similar occurrences, changed clothes and prepared for sleep.

After all, they would begin classes the next morning. Leah just hoped that she wouldn't be woken by a nightmare again.

 **A/N: Leah has finally reached Hogwarts! Such adventures ahead of her in these hallowed halls ;)**

 **I've posted a Flint family tree on my Tumblr for the more curious readers. I think you'll find they're quite well connected. Throughout this story, I'm hoping on posting other relevant family trees/character sheets/general tables/timelines, so if that's something that interests you, do mention it.**

 **Thank you again, and sorry for the bit fo a wait.**

 **Notes on reviews:**

 _Gammily: No, but good guess! It was a girl named Fay Dunbar who - 'spoiler' - will become **quite** important later ;)_

 _Mermaid1108: Great minds think alike!_


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